Here’s a major observation I have for you.
Observe people in so-called conversations, observe how they’re not really engaged in the to-and-fro of discussion, they’re simply waiting to get their chance to speak.
They’re not really reflecting on what’s being said. Often you’ll see they’re like a horse at the stocks, desperate to chime in that they will make verbal gestures while the other is speaking, try to start speaking thus interrupting the other or destroying their flow.
There’s a rudeness and an entitlement to it. Some of it, I will concede, is due to technology and time lags doing things over the internet but still. I see it a lot.
We’re starved. I think we know this. The regular places we used to meet have vanished, fewer and fewer of us congregate in the church, the pub, the office, wherever.
There is an obsessive need to sound smart, to make our point, very, very little actual listening, scant pondering, just a relentless desire to prove not just our point but our worldview correct.
As a gentleman who commented on one of my recent videos, it’s exhausting.
I go for my long walks to reconnect, on a daily basis, with nature, with myself, to steady my thoughts (but not necessarily order them). I’m a neat freak but the less I try and manipulate or demarcate my thinking, the more relaxed I am.
Pace. Moments of space. Look how there’s a single letter difference between those two words. Look at what’s in front of you. Are you really present to it or are you just repeating, out loud, existing thought patterns you wrangle over in private? Are you taking in what the person’s saying?
Things get sorted out in the right time, AT the right time.
So frantic.
So stressed.
Starved of peace.
None of it is actually necessary. I said it in my post yesterday.
Stop! Look! Listen!
Guess what, you could actually learn something by slowing the fuck down.